Global Manufacturing Data by Country

Posted on February 22, 2006  Comments (9)

I am still looking for a good source for manufacturing data by country and year. Today I found some data from the United Nations Statistics Division. The data for the top five manufacturing economies: China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. Figures are in current $US billion. The data used is for Mining, Manufacturing and Utilities (because China and Germany do not have manufacturing data separated out).

Country 2001 2002 2003 2004
United States 1,781 1,779 1,876 2,012
Japan 991 929 1017
China 507 551 638 754
Germany 421 449 545 613
United Kingdom 280 283 322 378

For manufacturing output only:

Country 2001 2002 2003 2004
United States 1,460 1,463 1,523 1,623
Japan 866 812 894
United Kingdom 220 223 254 298

This data shows the United States manufacturing economy is continuing to grow and is solidly the largest manufacturing economy: which contradicts what many believe. It is true manufacturing jobs are decreasing in the United States and worldwide – China is losing far more manufacturing jobs than the USA.

I including some information on the manufacturing economy in my post to the Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog: Phony Science Gap? and referenced my previous post here, Manufacturing and the Economy which reminded me that I wanted some updated data.

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9 Responses to “Global Manufacturing Data by Country”

  1. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Blog Archive » American Manufacturing Successes
    June 29th, 2006 @ 2:55 pm

    [...] Yes, as I have been saying the demise of manufacturing in the USA has been exaggerated in the popular press (Global Manufacturing Data by Country – US Manufacturing Plant Construction – Manufacturing and the Economy). Manufacturing jobs have decreased dramatically, both in the USA and the entire world. This decrease of manufacturing jobs worldwide is the most significant change. The manufacturing jobs moving from one country to another is also true but is reported much more than is justified in comparison to the overall decrease in jobs. Gordon Hunter, Littelfuse’s chief executive, is confident that America can maintain its edge in manufacturing. He is an engineer from the north of England who spent much of his earlier career working for Intel, a semiconductor firm, in California. American firms will keep on improving their productivity, he says, because of a business environment that embraces innovation. “Being flexible and willing to learn are skills that America still excels at,” he says. Eventually, perhaps even GM will get the hang of it. [...]

  2. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Blog Archive » Employee Ownership
    June 29th, 2006 @ 10:49 pm

    [...] Hopefully HC Miller can successfully adopt lean manufacturing methods. Thousands of similar small manufacturers are part of the reason the United States manufacturing output continues to rise (of course the additional Toyota production is a big factor). [...]

  3. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Blog Archive » New Look American Manufacturing
    June 30th, 2006 @ 1:18 pm

    [...] I agree by applying lean manufacturing and other management improvement ideas manufactures can and are prospering in the USA. I don’t think one factor is the key. Many factors determine whether the USA will continue to lead the world in manufacturing. The USA has to continue to support a dynamic economic system, maintain a transportation system, improve the health care system, improve the educational system, maintain the rule of law, reduce excessive legal costs, improve the management of manufacturers etc.. Each country has to work on these and other systems to stay competitive globally. “Those American manufacturers who are succeeding today are focusing on doing one thing: innovate, innovate, innovate,” says Scott Kingdom, global managing director of industrial markets for Korn/Ferry International, a management consulting firm. “They’re doing more valuable, higher-margin, mission-critical sorts of things that are less apt to be outsourced or taken abroad.” [...]

  4. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Blog Archive » North American Manufacturing
    July 6th, 2006 @ 7:39 pm

    [...] I once again feel compelled to point out that the USA is still manufacturing more than ever and its share of Global manufacturing is either not declining or declining very slightly. The sad part is that employees seem to understand what managers do not. Why do you think that nearly 63,000 people applied for only 2,000 production line jobs at a new Toyota plant in Texas in just two weeks? Workers realize that Toyota offers the right environment for them to grow. They have grown tired of the lack of respect offered by most North American companies. [...]

  5. Top 10 Manufacturing Countries
    January 28th, 2007 @ 12:53 pm

    The newest data from the UN confirms most of the recent trends in manufacturing output – most notably that China continues to grow dramatically…

  6. CuriousCat: Mississippi Plans Manufacturing Management Center
    June 30th, 2008 @ 5:09 pm

    “The center will offer four bachelor’s degree programs, two business-related and two engineering-related, all with a manufacturing emphasis…”

  7. Dennis Rogers
    December 3rd, 2009 @ 4:33 pm

    Questions:

    1) Please define a manufacturing job?

    2) An engineer designs a computer chip in America, but it produced in China. Is the engineer’s job in America counted as a manufacturing job? If so, how many of the manufacturing jobs in the data fall into this category (an engineer (or other American) designing something that is actually built in another country.

    3) Do you have a graph of manufacturing jobs in America over time for key industries such as: machine tools, computer chips, cars, airplanes, etc.

    4) How does America’s market share vary over time for the industries listed in question #3?

    If you don’t know these answers, direct me and I will dig them out.

    Thanks,

    Ex-computer chip manufacturing employee

  8. Top 10 Manufacturing Countries in 2009 at Curious Cat Economics Blog
    January 4th, 2011 @ 9:49 am

    The big, long term story remains the same. China has continued to grow manufacturing output tremendously. I see very little data to support the stories about manufacturing having to leave China to go elsewhere…

  9. Top 10 Manufacturing Countries 2006 at Curious Cat Economics Blog
    April 1st, 2011 @ 11:25 am

    Here is updated data from the UN on manufacturing output by country. China continues to grow amazingly moving into second place for 2006…

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